Akamai Cloud - AI Quickstart : n8n AI Workflow Automation

Automated deployment script to run your private, self-hosted AI workflow automation platform on Akamai Cloud GPU instances. This stack combines vLLM for high-performance LLM inference with n8n - a powerful workflow automation tool that lets you build AI-powered automations with a visual editor.

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🚀 Quick Start

Just run this single command:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linode/ai-quickstart-n8n/main/deploy.sh | bash

That's it! The script will download required files and guide you through the interactive deployment process.

✨ Features

• Fully Automated Deployment: Handles instance creation with real-time progress tracking
• Ready to use AI Stack: vLLM for GPU-accelerated inference + n8n for AI workflow automation
• Visual Workflow Builder: Create complex AI workflows with n8n's drag-and-drop interface
• OpenAI-Compatible API: Use vLLM as a drop-in replacement for OpenAI in your workflows
• Cross-Platform Support: Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (Git Bash/WSL)

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🏗️ What Gets Deployed

Linode GPU Instance with

• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with NVIDIA drivers
• Docker & NVIDIA Container Toolkit
• Systemd service for automatic startup on reboot

Docker Containers

	Service	Description
	Caddy	Reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS (port 80/443)
	n8n	AI workflow automation platform with visual editor (port 5678, internal)
	vLLM	High-throughput LLM inference engine with OpenAI-compatible API (port 8000, internal)
	Embedding	Text embedding model for vector search (BAAI/bge-m3, port 8001, internal)
	Reranker	Semantic reranking model (BAAI/bge-reranker-v2-m3, port 8002, internal)
	pgvector	PostgreSQL database with vector extension for n8n (port 5432, internal)

Models

LLM: openai/gpt-oss-20b

gpt-oss-20b is OpenAI's first fully open-source LLM, released under Apache 2.0 license. Key characteristics:

• 20B parameters: Fits on a single RTX 4000 Ada GPU (20GB VRAM)
• High benchmark scores: Competitive with larger models on reasoning and instruction-following tasks
• High throughput: Optimized for fast token generation with vLLM inference engine

Embedding: BAAI/bge-m3

BGE-M3 is a multilingual embedding model for semantic search and RAG applications:

• Multilingual support: 100+ languages
• Multi-functionality: Dense retrieval, sparse retrieval, and multi-vector retrieval
• Optimized for RAG: Perfect for n8n AI workflows requiring vector search

Reranker: BAAI/bge-reranker-v2-m3

BGE Reranker V2 improves search result relevance:

• Semantic reranking: Reorders search results by semantic similarity
• Lightweight: Efficient model for real-time reranking
• Multilingual: Supports cross-lingual reranking tasks

What is n8n?

n8n is a powerful workflow automation tool that lets you connect anything to everything. Key features include:

• Visual Workflow Builder: Create complex automations with a drag-and-drop interface
• 400+ Integrations: Connect to databases, APIs, SaaS tools, and more
• AI Capabilities: Built-in AI nodes for LLM integration, embeddings, and vector stores
• Self-Hosted: Full control over your data and workflows - nothing leaves your server
• PostgreSQL Backend: Production-ready database with pgvector extension for AI workflows

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📋 Requirements

Akamai Cloud Account

• Active Linode account with GPU access enabled

Local System Requirements

• Required: bash, curl, ssh, jq
• Note: jq will be auto-installed if missing

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🚦 Getting Started

1. Option A: Single Command Execution

No installation required - just run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linode/ai-quickstart-n8n/main/deploy.sh | bash

1. Option B: Download and Run

Download the script and run locally:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linode/ai-quickstart-n8n/main/deploy.sh
bash deploy.sh

1. Option C: Clone Repository

If you prefer to inspect or customize the scripts:

git clone https://github.com/linode/ai-quickstart-n8n
cd ai-quickstart-n8n
./deploy.sh

Note

if you like to add more services check out docker compose template file

vi /template/docker-compose.yml

2. Follow Interactive Prompts

The script will ask you to:

• Choose a region (e.g., us-east, eu-west)
• Select GPU instance type
• Provide instance label
• Select or generate SSH keys
• Confirm deployment

3. Wait for Deployment

The script automatically:

• Creates GPU instance in your Linode account
• Monitors cloud-init installation progress
• Waits for n8n health check
• Waits for vLLM model loading

4. Access Your Services

Once complete, you'll see:

🎉 Setup Complete!

✅ Your AI LLM instance is now running!

🌐 Access URLs:
   n8n:  https://<ip-label>.ip.linodeusercontent.com

🔐 Access Credentials:
   SSH:   ssh -i /path/to/your/key root@<instance-ip>

Configuration files in GPU Instance

   # Bootstrap script called by cloud-init service
   /opt/ai-quickstart-n8n/bootstrap.sh

   # docker compose file called by systemctl at startup
   /opt/ai-quickstart-n8n/docker-compose.yml

   # Caddy reverse proxy configuration
   /opt/ai-quickstart-n8n/Caddyfile

   # service definition
   /etc/systemd/system/ai-quickstart-n8n.service

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🗑️ Delete Instance

To delete a deployed instance:

# Remote execution
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linode/ai-quickstart-n8n/main/delete.sh | bash -s -- <instance_id>

# Or download script and run
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linode/ai-quickstart-n8n/main/delete.sh
bash delete.sh <instance_id>

The script will show instance details and ask for confirmation before deletion.

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📁 Project Structure

ai-quickstart-n8n/
├── deploy.sh                    # Main deployment script
├── delete.sh                    # Instance deletion script
├── template/
│   ├── cloud-init.yaml          # Cloud-init configuration
│   └── bootstrap.sh             # Post-boot installation script
└── setup/
    ├── docker-compose.yml       # Docker Compose configuration
    ├── Caddyfile                # Caddy reverse proxy configuration
    ├── setup.sh                 # Setup script run by systemd
    ├── n8n_credentials.json     # n8n credentials template
    └── n8n_workflow.json        # n8n workflow template

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🔒 Security

⚠️ IMPORTANT: By default, ports 80 and 443 are exposed to the internet

Immediate Security Steps

1. Configure Cloud Firewall (Recommended)

   • Create Linode Cloud Firewall
   • Restrict access to ports 80/443 by source IP
   • Allow SSH (port 22) from trusted IPs only

2. SSH Security

   • SSH key authentication required
   • Root password provided for emergency console access only

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🛠️ Useful Commands

# SSH into your instance
ssh -i /path/to/your/key root@<instance-ip>

# Check container status
docker ps -a

# Check Docker containers log
cd /opt/ai-quickstart-n8n && docker compose logs -f

# Check systemd service status
systemctl status ai-quickstart-n8n.service

# View systemd service logs
journalctl -u ai-quickstart-n8n.service -n 100

# Check cloud-init logs
tail -f /var/log/cloud-init-output.log -n 100

# Restart all services
systemctl restart ai-quickstart-n8n.service

# Check NVIDIA GPU status
nvidia-smi

# Check vLLM loaded models
curl http://localhost:8000/v1/models

# Check embedding model
curl http://localhost:8001/v1/models

# Check reranker model
curl http://localhost:8002/v1/models

# Check n8n health
curl http://localhost:5678/healthz

# Check PostgreSQL database
docker exec -it pgvector psql -U n8n -d n8n -c "SELECT version();"

# Check container logs
docker logs vllm
docker logs embedding
docker logs reranker
docker logs n8n
docker logs pgvector

🤝 Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome! For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.